Well folks, Shunya’s Notes is a year old today! Seems to me that since my inaugural post on Gandhi, it has come a fair distance. It has hosted many good debates and over 130 posts on a wide diversity of topics (most of them original pieces rather than links/excerpts), thanks in good measure to three terrific new bloggers now on board. It got a whole new design midway and its traffic too has steadily risen to average over 350 visitors a day.

Yet the blog remains fairly quiet, with only 3.3 comments per post (might it be because we leave our readers stunned and speechless with our stellar prose?). On the other hand, I am not surprised, given how many articles I myself read on the web and never comment on. Yet a part of me longs to know who the quiet regulars are and would welcome and appreciate their thoughts on Shunya’s Notes on this first anniversary.

I’ve certainly enjoyed blogging and have learned from it. My co-bloggers and a few readers have participated with panache and confidence and haven’t shied from strong (yet civil) disagreements. Debating usually involves picking sides; one assumes positions based partly on contingent factors, which may change with time and place, or with audiences and players. Given the time-bound exchanges on a blog, one often chooses words that do not best describe one’s position, or nuances thereof, or follow the full protocols of civility. I hope to get better at this over time.

Blogging has consumed a fair bit of my past year. So I thought of compiling a “top 10 reasons I blog” list. Here goes: 🙂

10. To try and save the world with my manifestly exquisite pearls of wisdom
09. To realize personal therapeutic benefits by ranting, raving, and showing off
08. To derive a little joy and a sense of accomplishment in whipping an idea into shape out of chaos
07. To acquire the illusion that I am making small (positive) differences while holed up in a nice, warm room or cafe
06. To build a quiet record of a personal history, a journal of sorts, knowing well that it will nevertheless turn to dust
05. To gain independent, third-party validation that I am still sane in a world often incomprehensible to me
04. To chase after the personal growth that (supposedly) accompanies the process of writing
03. To seek conversations with other thoughtful people on topics of mutual interest
02. To kill time, because I have no better use for it
01. Because the world urgently needs to know what I am thinking!

In any case, thanks for patronizing Shunya’s Notes. We expect to be around for the foreseeable future. I believe that our best work lies ahead of us. Three cheers!